[360, PS3] Crysis 2

[betan]

Finished the game. Loved the gameplay despite [ cloak, mark, stealth kill | (armour, kill, cloak), rinse, repeat ] cycle that goes for ever. Old school PC shooter like mostly useless interactivity was also welcome. Coming after that other game, it took some time getting used to the skating feel of FP camera.

Unlike some others I also enjoyed the semi-openness of the game, though admittedly it's not a perfect fit with easy stealth, especially after suit upgrades. In fact, for the most part killing humans was totally unnecessary and I wouldn't bother with Ceth either if they didn't carry those nano flies. I did kill most of them until all upgrades were full. In fact I often let them call reinforcements just to get those points, hadn't seen a single infinite respawn section. Checkpointing was terrible and inconsistent though. After killing an army of Ceth, there is nothing more annoying than having to restart because of the last guy you missed (probably because visor not being so useful without a dark cover. Thanks IQ and CryTek artist!). Yet the game sometimes checkpoints every minute without a single fight.

Game undeniably needs polish, some better design decisions, possibly a lot of optimisation too, but my real problem with the game is total lack of run and gun gameplay.

There are a lot of bugs in the game, including AI, gfx, audio, some generic stuff, but nothing game breaking. For AI, even though it's nothing impressive or even good, I too think it's somewhat understandable given the scene complexity and verticality.

Graphics would be impressive if it was only sunny outdoors, had decent IQ and better LOD. Even then though it wouldn't be anything close to groundbreaking. There were some incredible looking scripted cutscenes though, thanks to particle effects. Speaking of which, the cutscene mechanics is awesome. I loved how the game sometimes smoothly took control of Alcatraz only to give it back as smoothly, sometimes just suggested a view and sometimes did nothing at all. This is how realtime cutscenes should be done in an FPS. Too bad the story was so boring, after some point I didn't even bother listening. Of course I hated loading and briefing videos. Could also use less MW2 like crawling scenes.

Oh and, hey Cameron, Crysis 2 3D is a joke! It barely works as a cut paste solution when you have a bunch of marines lined up in front of you, against a background. But scenery itself has no 3d separation at all, or I should say it has a constant separation independent of the distance. Same goes for the foreground objects, which is where 3D shines in my opinion. Weird thing to brag about.

Still a great game. Looking forward to a sequel.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I pretty much run and gunned while I was playing, because I enjoyed the sound of the light machine-guns so much. It was pretty fun. I used the odd bit of stealth, but I was more interested in rampaging around. The controls and the shooting feel solid. The sound really is great. It's not at the level of Bad Company 2, which is pretty much unsurpassed for shooter audio, but the combat has a pretty satisfying audio track.

For the AI, I'd say it was nothing to write home about, which it puts it on the level of pretty much every other shooter that's been coming out. There are a few titles I'm sure people will suggest to me are the bees knees, but please do not waste your time. I have played them, and they are shit too.

Didn't encounter any bugs while I was playing.

 

[betan]

Overall I found the weapon sounds were very weak as were their effectiveness against Ceph. I didn't find a single useful gun until that LMG (MK-60?), except for DSG-1 sniper rifle which I couldn't use as much as I like because of the nano fly thingies. Grendel was decent as well, but came too late. I appreciated the generosity of the game about the ammo though.

What I would like as run an gun was something like a fast Ceph or regular dog herd which can simply smell you even when you are invisible but weak individually.

Does the game unlock Superhuman when you finish the normal difficulty?

 

[Dave Glue]

Overall I found the weapon sounds were very weak as were their effectiveness against Ceph. I didn't find a single useful gun until that LMG (MK-60?), except for DSG-1 sniper rifle which I couldn't use as much as I like because of the nano fly thingies. Grendel was decent as well, but came too late. I appreciated the generosity of the game about the ammo though.

What I would like as run an gun was something like a fast Ceph or regular dog herd which can simply smell you even when you are invisible but weak individually.

Does the game unlock Superhuman when you finish the normal difficulty?

Don't know for sure, but I switched to normal during the final levels after playing 90% of it on Veteran, and superhuman was unlocked.

 

[N_B]

Overall I found the weapon sounds were very weak as were their effectiveness against Ceph. I didn't find a single useful gun until that LMG (MK-60?), except for DSG-1 sniper rifle which I couldn't use as much as I like because of the nano fly thingies. Grendel was decent as well, but came too late. I appreciated the generosity of the game about the ammo though.

The rare weapons seem designed to take out the Ceph very fast. The "Mike" gun ignores their armor and the grenade launcher one shots everything except the big fellers..

I made sure to steal mounted machine guns whenever possible. Very satisfying to use and very effective.

 

[Cornsnake]

The K-volt is also good against the Ceph. And ammo for it can be resupplied in the regular ammo boxes, unlike the other special weapons.

 

[ShadowRunner]

The K-volt is also good against the Ceph. And ammo for it can be resupplied in the regular ammo boxes, unlike the other special weapons.

I thought it was extremely weak. I think its just meant for taking down sheilds, so its great against the Red aliens but thats about it.

My loadout was always M60 + Grendel, picking up the mounted guns whenever possible.

 

[betan]

Heavy machine guns are great, especially since the game generously provides them whenever there is a boss or mini-boss. Among the resupplied weapons I prefer the MK60 + DSG1 combo. Among the special weapons I do like the nail-machine-gun thing (Mike x-43?). Unfortunately game keeps taking your weapons as if you take rufie every day.

 

[N_B]

I thought it was extremely weak. I think its just meant for taking down sheilds, so its great against the Red aliens but thats about it.

My loadout was always M60 + Grendel, picking up the mounted guns whenever possible.

The k-volt shocks all aliens stunning them for a while...made the final fight ridiculously easy IMO.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Gotta say i really love this game.

Graphics are amazing even on the ps3, the singleplayer is also suprisingly long and enjoyable.

Haven't made up my mind about the mp yet.

 

[Rangers]

I thought it was extremely weak. I think its just meant for taking down sheilds, so its great against the Red aliens but thats about it.

My loadout was always M60 + Grendel, picking up the mounted guns whenever possible.

K-Volt does seem very effective against aliens. It's sort of an alien specialist weapon. Against Humans it's not good.

Grendel was quite powerful but doesnt let you carry enough ammo (96+24). I found even common machine guns a better fit for the first "main" weapon slot.

At one point, again trying to vary up the weapons, I was using a Grendel/Gauss Cannon combo, and ended up having to run past a section of enemies near the end simply because I triggered a checkpoint nearly completely out of ammo.

The weapons like the Mike and the Guass Cannon look cool and are fun, but are too ammo limited to be anything but short term playthings.

Basically as I said, I didn't find anything rivaling the M-60 (or any of the few "basic" rifles works ok in this slot, with m60 only marginally superior)/DSG-1 combo even in the late stages of the game. I would like to feel more of a "progression". I can level the same charge at the Modern Warfare campaigns. You run across a million different guns but there's little differentiation in effectiveness, so you just end up using the same guns all the time.

I also dont like the weapon customization so much. It's neat in a way, but in most cases there's only one best site for a gun, so it's nothing but annoying to pick up a "stealth scarab" or what have you, and have to manually change it to what you want every time. For me the "reflex site" is almost always best for most standard guns, as it gives you both short range speed and enough long range ability. Whereas of course the DSG-1 you want to leave on scope. The silencer attachment was always just an annoyance on my playthrough, as it decreases the weapon power and I was never stealthing that much as that seems fairly impossible if you're using the guns much anyway. Bottom line picking up a silenced weapon is always just an annoyance as I prefer to remove the silencer every single time, and it's very common to do. Also, it seemed like I noticed, say you were carrying a "demolition scarab" and walk over a "stealth scarab", I'm not 100% sure, but it seemed like in some cases the game treated them as completely different weapons, and wouldn't recharge the ammo of one with the other. I found that also annoying since theyre the same gun...

I also can quibble with the re playability, once finished, I've wanted to go back and test certain fun or graphically impressive sequences again, however, the game isnt very amenable to this. For one, there's only a level select granularity, when a checkpoint select ala Reach would be better for playing the exact segment you wish. Two, the often long cutscenes play at the beginning of each level and you cant skip them. This, combined with the checkpoint system where if you die youre set back a long way, makes attempting to play any given section (if it's not right at the beginning of the level) again quite frustrating.

Of course despite all these quibbles I really liked the game, dont get me wrong.

I did play one round of MP, and noticed the Mp level I landed on was quite pretty with gorgeous sunshine lighting, a heck of a lot better looking than any of the levels in the MP demo's, which is funny given the backlash against those.

 

[N_B]

I also dont like the weapon customization so much. It's neat in a way, but in most cases there's only one best site for a gun, so it's nothing but annoying to pick up a "stealth scarab" or what have you, and have to manually change it to what you want every time. For me the "reflex site" is almost always best for most standard guns, as it gives you both short range speed and enough long range ability. Whereas of course the DSG-1 you want to leave on scope. The silencer attachment was always just an annoyance on my playthrough, as it decreases the weapon power and I was never stealthing that much as that seems fairly impossible if you're using the guns much anyway. Bottom line picking up a silenced weapon is always just an annoyance as I prefer to remove the silencer every single time, and it's very common to do. Also, it seemed like I noticed, say you were carrying a "demolition scarab" and walk over a "stealth scarab", I'm not 100% sure, but it seemed like in some cases the game treated them as completely different weapons, and wouldn't recharge the ammo of one with the other. I found that also annoying since theyre the same gun...

I think swapping the same weapon was just a way to quickly change from one attachment to another without going into the menu. I found the silencer and grenade launcher attachments extremely useful, and playing on super-human now they are a necessity. The silencer makes sniping much easier and the grenade attachment is great for aliens.

Though I used stealth a lot ..best way to go into a situation IMO.

Didn't find a use for the underslung shotgun though.

 

[djskribbles]

Is it just me, or do the first few levels seem to be noticeably smoother after the patch (PS3 here)?
Those were the only levels that I had framerate problems, but I just played them again after the patch and it wasn't so bad.

 

[nightshade]

Well I did 'feel' it to be somewhat smoother after the patch, donno if its really the patch or just my me getting used to the game after playing it on PS3 for so long.

 

[Cyan]

Well, I am really really enjoying this game. I agree with people the AI sucks, regardless the difficulty level and the enemy type, but I don't remember being as hooked with a game for a very long time as with Crysis 2. I used to play games like that back in my PC gaming days and the last game I completed more than once was Halo 2, if I remember correctly. I am still playing my first walkthrough on veteran difficulty level and I will play it again on supersoldier whenever I unlock it. I am loving the campaign so far. I didn't touch the MP modes yet.

I completely agree the MK-60 / DSG-1 combo is really powerful, although my favourite weapons have to be the AY-69 -which reminds me of one of my favourite weapons ever in another game, as I like to confront aliens relatively close to them, although it runs out of ammo really fast- and the Majestic. The shotguns never appealed to me though. The rest are pretty good. I enjoy most Crysis 2 weapons as a whole.

I also really like the C4 to lay an ambush for aliens, and catch them unaware. It helped me in quite a few situations.

My continuing addiction to this potential classic is quite descriptive of how good I find the game. If it had, let's say, the AI of Halo games and like fellow forumers have pointed out before, the interesting battles typical of Halo, like facing two Brutes instead of one it would be a masterpiece. Perhaps the amount of enemies increase with the difficulty level but I don't think so.

The storyline is not that bad, but it's quite confusing and not so interesting and definitely NOT masterpiece level, although better than in other games. While it doesn't lose interest there pretty quick, it's not its strong point.

Thats about it if you don't include multiplayer stuff.

Right now I am on a stage where the time of the day is somewhere at nightfall, it isn't completely dark yet.

My score: 9.2. Really great game, it doesn't matter to me if it's sub-HD in consoles.

p.s. I wander from game to game at leisure depending on my mood. I am also playing Toy Story 3, which has some fun stuff, but I like C2 more.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

I also dont like the weapon customization so much. It's neat in a way, but in most cases there's only one best site for a gun, so it's nothing but annoying to pick up a "stealth scarab" or what have you, and have to manually change it to what you want every time. For me the "reflex site" is almost always best for most standard guns, as it gives you both short range speed and enough long range ability. Whereas of course the DSG-1 you want to leave on scope. The silencer attachment was always just an annoyance on my playthrough, as it decreases the weapon power and I was never stealthing that much as that seems fairly impossible if you're using the guns much anyway. Bottom line picking up a silenced weapon is always just an annoyance as I prefer to remove the silencer every single time, and it's very common to do. Also, it seemed like I noticed, say you were carrying a "demolition scarab" and walk over a "stealth scarab", I'm not 100% sure, but it seemed like in some cases the game treated them as completely different weapons, and wouldn't recharge the ammo of one with the other. I found that also annoying since theyre the same gun...

Speak for yourself, i silence all my weapons. I liked the m60, but prefered a silenced automatic rifle instead. On the hardest difficulty settings it makes life a lot more easier, as the enemies cannot locate you while you are killing their friends, unless they actually see you.If not they all come rushing.

The sniper is nice with a silencer imo,the reduction in damage doesn't matter one bit in the singleplayer, as you have all the time in the world to aim for the head anyway.

Having it on pervents the enemies rushing you. Which again, on Supersoldier or whatever its called, is something you are going to need, as one random soldier can kill you easily.

On the lower settings, it doesn't really matter, as you can melee yourway through the entire game with the exception of boss fights.

 

[betan]

I too think silencer is a lot less useful compared to other games because of the instant telepathic link between enemies. While this doesn't seem to be the case for stealth kills, if the awareness is already high melee seems to be a better option thanks to the stupid AI. Each melee attack makes you visible only half a second not giving time to the enemy to attack you!.

 

[Billy Idol]

still in the middle of the game...I use a lot stealth + sniper rifle (call me headshot king ...but playing with k/m is like cheating to be honest compared to console gaming!!)
I really like the game...cool!
happy that it last so long...still hoping for the story to get a little bit more intense!

 

[Mendel]

I really enjoyed the first half of the game... but then once I could afford to buy the stealth enhancement, I pretty much just ran through levels without much of any firefights. That tells me I didn´t enjoy the firefights enough so that if I can just avoid them I choose to just run through the checkpoints cloaked, hide for a while to recharge power, then move on again... But then I didn´t really enjoy the game anymore. Can´t figure it out really.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

I too think silencer is a lot less useful compared to other games because of the instant telepathic link between enemies. While this doesn't seem to be the case for stealth kills, if the awareness is already high melee seems to be a better option thanks to the stupid AI. Each melee attack makes you visible only half a second not giving time to the enemy to attack you!.

Aim at enemys head, go out of stealth, shoot, go into stealth, is a tactic that makes you more or less god if you have silencers.